1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to hand tools, in particularly to pneumatic powered high impact tools. The invention additionally relates to devices for use in removing building materials from a surface.
2. Discussion of Related Art
The most basic way to remove old roofing materials for replacement is to use a shovel to scrape the shingles, felt and nails from the surface of the roof. Any remaining nails must be pried up with the edge of the shovel. The loosened material must also be lifted up from the surface with the shovel. This is a tedious and inefficient process.
Powered tools have been developed to speed the process and to alleviate the manual labor involved. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,128,979 discloses a power assisted shovel that has a reciprocating shovel blade. While this device offers powered assistance by vibrating the shovel blade, it does not assist a user in lifting the materials or prying materials still fastened to the surface. Additionally, the vibrating device imparts the vibration to the user and can be physically jarring to a user.
Other devices have provided power assisted lifting mechanisms, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,691,439 in which a shovel-like device has a pivoting blade. However, the user must still manually insert the blade under the shingles to operate the lifting mechanism.
There is a need for a device that alleviates the difficult manual labor aspects of removing material from a surface. There is also a need for a device that can improve the speed and efficiency of removing materials from a surface.